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Jacquelin

Hi! Welcome to my blog! My name is Jacquelin and I am from Victoria, BC on sunny Vancouver Island. I am a mom, wife, doula and love all things crafty. I started this journey in 2012 - my year of transformation (the start of it, anyway!!)- getting healthy and fit and finding a balanced life. I hope you find inspiration and a few laughs here and that you come back and visit my blog again soon!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

I decided late last year that it was long past time for me to make some real and lasting changes in my life. My motivation? A few health scares, reaching my highest weight ever ( and yes I will put it out there - a whopping 270 pounds!) and just being tired of feeling tired, not being able to do the things I once enjoyed and wanting, at 45 years old, to live for at least another 40 years.

Let's face facts - I am not "big", "voluptuous", "plump" or "plus sized" - I am fat. Plain old, not so glamorous, damn hard to get rid of - FAT. Time to face facts. And the scale. And the tape measure. And the mirror. The dreaded mirror.

To make a long story short - I decided to make a change - or many small and large changes, to be exact.
I signed up for an online class called Move More Eat Well, a class that incorporates healthy eating and fitness with support and my crafty passion, scrapbooking. I researched healthy eating plans and looked at various fitness options. And I entered a contest.

A friend encouraged me to apply for the BDHQ-Over - a year long fitness and health makeover from an amazing personal training studio here in Victoria. One full year of personal training, indoor studio and outdoor bootcamp classes, along with a lot of other cool swag. Sounded perfect!

The awkward part? In order to apply I had to fill in an application - not too hard, since I love to talk about myself ( hence the blogging!), and years of perfecting the fat funny girl routine gave me an edge over the competition, or so I thought! Because being fat is completely hilarious - or at least humour makes it more tolerable! I happily clicked send - even putting in my real weight, as frightening as that was - after all - more weight to lose mean more dramatic results right ? ;)

But then came the nasty little note reminding me to send in a full front and side shot OF MYSELF! Really? Really? You want me to stand in front of the camera and actually be in a picture - a full body picture even? I pretty much avoid all photos of me by taking most of them and being in charge of uploading photos so I can delete any of myself - I learned my lesson following the horrifying ( for everyone) experience of Hannah taking a SERIES of shots this past summer of me leaping off the dock into the lake in my bathing suit! Oh my gosh - call the coast guard immediately there s unidentified ship in the water. Seriously - the photos were almost a deal breaker.

But I took them, and submitted them, and then promptly told myself I would never, ever win. January 1st rolled around and I began my year long adventure. Pretty good going those first two weeks - healthy eating, a little gentle walking ( why sweat when you can stroll?) and a lot of thinking about that makeover contest thing. When the closing date of the contest arrived on January 13th, I realized how much I really wanted this - like so much I could hardly sleep over the weekend, but still telling myself I wouldn't win. Well, I was wrong!

This past Monday, January 16th, I got a call from the lovely Lovisa at BDHQ - asking me to come in for an interview - I had been shortlisted! I was in the car and I was shaking so much I could hardly talk! This might actually come true!

I arrived at the studio and settled in for my interview. I was pretty nervous, but the friend who encouraged me to apply ( thanks JES!) was there visiting with her baby. A happy coincidence! Or so I thought. After a few general questions Lovisa told me how much they liked my application and that, in fact, I HAD WON!!! After a series of OMG's and some tears - all caught on camera and coming to a BDHQ blog near you - it began to sink in. I was in for the challenge, an opportunity of a lifetime.

SO of course, I have to blog about it - it is too important, too life changing, too darn fun, not to! And there is nothing like a blog to keep me publicly accountable! I hope you will join me in this journey - I know I will learn a ton, and change even more, and maybe you might something to learn or encourage you to make changes, as well. At the very least you get to laugh at my efforts and hopefully amusing tales of my year of transformation. And those pictures? Here they are, in all their glory - time to get real - and may I never look this miserable again!

Thank you for sharing your journey with us Jacquelin.Wishing you the best of luck, standing on the sidelines cheering you on...and hopefully picking up some tips along the way.You rock girl!!Big hugs xx